Amsterdam anniversary bells have been ringing throughout the city as the Dutch capital has been marking the 25th anniversary of the world's first gay marriages.
The Dutch capital has been celebrating the 25th anniversary of staging the world's first same-sex marriages in a pioneering move copied by nearly 40 other countries.
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Early on Wednesday, three gay couples tied the knot at City Hall in Amsterdam in a ceremony conducted by Mayor Femke Halsema just after midnight.
In 2001, one of her predecessors, Job Cohen, married four couples in a landmark moment for LGBTQ+ rights.
Same-sex weddings are now commonplace in the Netherlands, with more than 36,000 couples recording their nuptials, according to the Dutch statistics office.
Prime Minister Rob Jetten, the country's first openly gay leader, is planning to soon marry his partner Nicolás Keenan, an Argentine field hockey star who won a bronze medal with his country’s team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“As a prime minister, I’m very proud that we celebrate 25 years of universal marriage here in the Netherlands,'' Jetten told The Associated Press at the overnight ceremony.
‘’Also for me personally, I can still remember when I was 14 years old watching TV, seeing the first couples getting married here in Amsterdam. That was also very inspiring and emancipating for me, personally, as it has been for so many others,'' he said.
